Tag Archives: Ethereal purpose

A Poet’s Ride (aka the Penny Horse)

What sets the place of commas
as from this fluent pen does fall?
What strokes the pause in thinking?
What dries the ink past question’s call?

Who pokes the sudden image
into the static matter, grey?
Who sets the syllables in line there,
before the truth, as hand paints lay?

Who feeds the silent horses
in wait to craft an image dear?
What stands the milk to crème
that brings the poet’s thoughts to clear?

When is that time for writing
where eyes watch hand take pen to task?
What time is it when landing ink
colorfully paints a recalled past?

How can it be these diverse things
call summing into moment’s hold,
that in one fractioned second spin
scant letters into gold?

Who is the muse of ethos
that keeps the meter bound to clay,
so guides the subtle shaping of
the image felt and cast to lay?

Here are my moments stolen
when from my day my pen takes hand.
Here is the wild ride, in crafting
what I know not comes to band
the ether’d thoughts in floating,
the melding of what’s known, unknown,
the growing of a story
from the clips of life my past has shown.

I ride without a payment,
no penny here have I,
but cast my journey sacred
and never think to wonder why.

This is my blessing, this is my curse,
and tho’ I ride with empty purse
I feel the gift is gold!
… and selfishly I’ll return to ride
until I’m just too old.

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Filed under Perspective, Poetry, Universal Soul

Something Pulls Me

Something there does pull me –

Between the cracking daylight’s seam
and worn to rest at end of dusk –
Something there does pull me –

It leads with motivation born
upon the robin’s morning song,
guides me through a calm enjoyment
wrapped in sun’s rays streaming long.

I task about the pre-work day
with peace of spirit as my guide,
through feeding squirrels, birds, and dog
and watering potted plants outside.

It queues the time for coffee
in synch with chores’ work done,
sits me calmly in front of her,
to loving smile and morning sun.

It pulls me through the work day
with strength in knowing what I do.
It grants my confidence courage
to dive into the corporate zoo.

Yet it pulls me with a knowing
that every moment’s purpose met
will see in me the best of me,
on paths there meant for me I’ve set.

It draws me through the weekend chores
where hands grow tired and sting with sweat,
yet grants a cooling summer breeze
to pleasure useful purpose yet.

It builds a satisfaction
in craftsman’s work and job well done,
it strokes my motivation best
when worn I find it’s all been fun.

And so to evening’s solitude,
a final gift it brings,
granted quiet with pen and pad,
and cigars by which I can blow rings.

Something there does pull me –
Exactly what or who, I’ve guessed,
but the granted gifts in following,
are love, and purpose, and living blessed.

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Filed under Perspective, Poetry, Universal Soul

Dare

Dare to stand between the lines
of metered meaning rhyme,
that space between the pen and page,
in infinitesimal time
where image conjured draws a slow
distortion through the space to think,
and forms another angled truth
before the page is wet with ink.

Dare to chance the rhythm’d flash
that grows in instant, yet’s quickly passed
to roll beyond the comma’s stay,
there bend the meaning of every lay.

Dare to let subconscious reign
when guided by a sweet refrain,
leave the moment fading fast
where each pen stroke might change the cast
of what you really want to say,
of what you thought so purposed,
so spent in dancing pen at play
brings only soul to surface.

Dare to watch the pen ignite
its personality won,
you think you writer, but that’s not quite
what happens when the pen stroke’s done.

Dare to set emotion free
through meditative spirit,
guide what’s written but let it be,
that as it’s written, heart it!

Dare to synch your worldly thoughts
with living ink and pen,
don’t think, don’t count or hesitate
just let the ether in.

Dare to open window frames
and push your head beyond,
listen in the whispers there
and let the page take such ink on.

Dare to write what comes to you,
what flows through ink to page –
find immutable spirit there,
and free it from its cage!

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Filed under Perpective, Poetry, Universal Soul

Meditation Gardens

Quiet setting juxtaposed to Shanghai’s metro scene,
but for one peaceful afternoon,
this treasure bends my heart serene.

Ancient texts in classrooms held in museum’s pressured pallor,
statuettes in work or war
echo truths in lesson’s valor.

Reflecting pond near silent stoops, echo strength to pause,
so stir the golden mirrored fin
rippling purpose in waves of cause.

Peace be mine, to escape, to learn,
granted calm in what I yearn.
So mends the fabric of this day,
so fills my heart in every way.

Yet as I overflow in hope, ancient lessons gather ‘round,
call to duty living merit
and life walked o’er this sacred ground,

that carry I in moments hence, values true at decision’s point,
to grant peace and understanding
at every moment’s joint.

Day ends, and through the gate I go, returned to city’s din,
yet carry with me all I’ve learned,
to share in passing, every grin.

In reflection of Meditation Gardens in Shanghai, China – Oct 2006

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Filed under Perpective, Photography, Poetry, Universal Soul

My Stone Wall

Smooth and mixed, the stones betray
the purpose of each course I laid,
that mortar’s strength to hold them fast
denies my hope to see them last
in square to where each one I stayed.

Mortar cracked and crumbled clings
to stones once plucked from mountain streams,
each in purpose so selected,
that as my work neared done, reflected
the lane to which my heart would sing.

Years that dressed my lane to home
witnessed living thrusts since gone,
captured echoes of a purpose,
pushed from God to here, to surface
what this life and soul has known…

Triumph in a child’s eye.
Approving nod of passersby.
Winter nights in season’s mirth.
Awe and bliss in children’s births.
Fractured heart when stress had won.
Undoing of a wayward son.
Broken stride in parent’s deaths.
Splintered family and such regrets.
Falling from the strength to cope,
when whispers came in certain hope,
as lives careened between the walls
and hands repaired the fists in halls,
when tragedy begged into the room
to paint the road in front with gloom,
as fast this last hand grasped for life,
witnessed strength to break with strife.
Saw the hope that changed this heart.
Saw what fed and fueled the parts
of broken paths and shaken schemes.
Saw such love fold into dreams
and grant a smiling eye …
and all the years gone by…

My lane in stone wall’s soft repose
extends a peace that no one knows, but I.
It’s stoic stance is earned so well,
tho’ cracked and stained, not one stone fell,
that now in quiet solitude
has earned my histories gratitude,
and assuring nods from passersby.

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Filed under Family, History, Memory, Poetry, Universal Soul

Quietude

This quiet now enrobes me.
This peace I’ve so longed for, real.
To this moment my aching bones and tired heart reveal
the very soul of me, the body of an aging man,
the thoughts that always linger near,
that only now, in silence, can
the heart of who I am, address
the needs that rise within my soul.
Now, with peace and quietude,
through breath and patience, I let go…

Questions, purpose, tasks at hand…
I know there’s much that I must give
to fulfill their journey’s purpose,
to balance spirit, life, and live!

But quandary overcomes me,
when pressed by doings of the day,
so do I seek this solitude,
so try to find my way
to let this path unfold to me,
open up in simple steps,
by which my life can simply take,
through which my soul can let
the journey find its purpose,
in ease and knowing truth’s revealed…
So, this is why I sit here
and draw upon all that I feel.

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Filed under Poetry, Universal Soul

Lead

Thin line formed by those who know,
attracting those who know,
giving of their very core
to help the mass that doesn’t know…

Deep within the core of we,
a fabric bathed in soul,
that looks toward horizon,
that stands to lead where few will go.

Heavy burden carried quiet,
not a thought of “why” it’s done,
yet granted love in living’s moment
to lift and calm the worried sum.

At core, in every fiber,
we know it in our hearts,
this calling so belongs to us,
to lead and gather up the parts
of that which falls around us,
be it soul or act or wind,
that so upon this living field
we guide the hearts of men.

In twos we find each other,
in pairs we balance what we know
of what we’ve learned in life as one,
and what alone as two we show.

Balance, counter-balance,
by twos we change the world,
strength to ebb and recover strength,
in twos can such a power unfurl.

Saving lives through action,
mending lives through words,
calming spirits through simple glances,
till every ache and ailment cured.

As two who know the calling,
bathed in soulful fabric, shared –
the strength of both may burden one
when one is without its living pair.
Yet strong the stitch and weave endures
and pulls to balance, centered again,
that strength of two will right itself,
their fabric such, will always mend…
that not Newton’s motion or outside force
so worked upon in any sense
can undo the core of one or two,
but Newton, such to two will bend…

It’s in you and you know it.
You feel your strength in every day.
You feel the universe unfold and roll
at your feet as if to say,
“I’m here for you and all you are
and all you hope to be,
is mine to give at your request
for the core of you is me.
You lead for you’re beloved,
and love’s your strongest gift,
that when you’re two with soul as one,
no grief or burden can’t you lift.”

Believe the simple truth you know,
you’ve always known its strength.
Lead by what is best in you
till that’s all that’s left, at length.

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Filed under Poetry, Universal Soul

Heart’s Red Leaves

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Red along the pond’s edge path,
reflections stolen, frozen fast
in glass, in trance against this sky –

Contrast white on blue –

Polished chrome, no stone
disturbs the water –

Heart’s blood leaves
in quaking, heave
a whispered drift to set a subtle wrinkle,
throws the blue on white to stand,
calls me, takes my hand
as golden drops in feathered flight
alight.

All sight is here and for, around me.

Echo still the silent rill
by will of hills
so scaped to cut the knee high grass –
tumble silent to pond below
slow, and show the truth of what I know.

This moment’s gate surrounds me.

I unleashed in metaphor
imbibe in tide of temporal flux,
the crux of just what is,
or gone.

Alone or one, unknown.

Yet summed in seconds dreamed,
redeemed in holy solitude.
The sky, the wood,
where heart’s leaves stood
to dance and so entrance me.

Dream be mine, of life or death,
and yet I can’t recall
how tall I stand or stall
on feet to greet unworldly wonder –

Soft thunder welcomes aging ties,
belies the moments temporal –
leaves a hold,
draws warmth from cold.

Heart and blood so vernal,
autumnal, eternal –

In quiet grace, I face this whole,
my soul embraced, my heart’s blood full.

Herein peace be mine –
of what I am,
what I’ve been through,
eternal blocks of time –

all of me, this rhyme.

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Filed under Nature, Photography, Poetry

Heaven’s Door

Heaven’s Door


At fleeting moment’s grasp,
the heavens beckoned, opened hasp
and brought me clear unto this day –

Rose and amber shadowed,
pulling on my heart beat’s hollowed
echo through the blue and grey –

And there I stood in awe –
Caught twixt heaven and earth I saw
the very face of God!
As whispered soft, his thoughts struck true
this flawed and tiny man, I knew
I’d stumbled into Heaven!

As quickly as I realized thought
and questions formed with answers sought
a grin and sparkled eye beheld me –
Set my mind back to my place,
relieved the worry on my face
and laughed, “this could be Heaven that you see…”

With fleeting moment’s heart beat gone,
I found myself upon the lawn
beneath a summer’s thunderstorm –
Where twixt the booms and flashing light,
rose doorway’d clouds held fast my sight,
and the rain began to pour…

“There stumbled I on Heaven’s door?”

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Darkness Falls

Writer’s Corner

Quiet dusk, in hiding sum,
dissolves the edge to black, and run
of grey and tattered line,
give way to night, leave day behind.
Corner shadows grow and meld
all light to grey, and so beheld
in timeless murk of question, real?
Dissolve my sitting space to feel,
and only feel where conscious calls,
where grey in echoed darkness falls…

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